BAM took back The Last Relic’s store with a copy of the letter it sent the Messers, still addressed “Dear Mr. and Ms. Messer.” Ammon McNeff verified the Messer lawsuit, then swore to a disclosure document that left it out.
BAM sold The Last Relic its Wesley Chapel, Florida company store in 2022, and by its own count was still owed about $80,000 from the sale when its lawyers ended his franchise on December 12, 2024. They did it with the letter they had written for the Messers a year earlier, down to the greeting and the document number, and offered to cancel everything he owed if he handed over the store. Brandon Best and Josh Johnson incorporated the company that took it that day. Four months later Ammon McNeff swore to a disclosure document that denies BAM finances franchisees, counts no terminations in 2024, and omits the lawsuit against the Messers that he had verified.
PRIMARY SOURCEThe letters: Exhibit K to BAM’s verified complaint in BAM Franchising, Inc. v. Madventures, Inc., Utah Fourth District No. 240400022; the Wesley Chapel letter, redacted, on screen in CAMELOT331’s video of June 30, 2026; the Salem letter, Exhibit D in BAMF Salem 1, LLC v. BAM Franchising, Inc., No. 260200029. BAM’s 2025 disclosure document, its tables and audited notes, and Ammon McNeff’s sworn certification, as filed with Minnesota.
The same file
BAM put the first letter in the court record itself. On January 4, 2024 it sued Madventures, Inc., the company through which the Messers held three Bricks & Minifigs franchises, and attached the letter its lawyers, Wm. Kelly Nash and Phillip Kuck of Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar, had sent them on November 24, 2023. The complaint calls it “A true and accurate copy of the Cease and Desist Letter” and files it as Exhibit K. Ammon McNeff verified the complaint “in my capacity as President and owner of BAM Franchising, Inc.” It is the filing in which BAM redacted a tipster who was its own chief technology officer.
The Last Relic’s letter is dated December 12, 2024. With his name blacked out, it is on screen page by page in a June 30, 2026 video by the YouTuber CAMELOT331.
The body was rewritten for him. It terminates “the 10/24/2022 Franchise Agreement,” speaks of a single “Mr.” behind a black box, and refers to “the Wesley Chapel location” (3:42). The heading and the greeting were not rewritten, apart from one word of the heading: “Notice of Default” became “Notice of Termination.” Both letters carry SLC_6499958.1 at the foot of every page, and both close over the names of Wm. Kelly Nash and Phillip Kuck (4:57). fact checkprimary source
The offer
The 2023 letter gave the Messers 30 days to cure. If the franchises ended, it said, they would owe liquidated damages, set by a formula from their monthly royalties and the months left in the term, and would have to “Sell to BAM your interests in the Franchises, all Accepted Location,” with the equipment, fixtures and leases.
The Wesley Chapel version of the file terminated at once. It put what The Last Relic owed at “approximately $163,734.22,” liquidated damages by the same formula included (3:42), and on its last page offered to waive all of it.
“However, if [redacted] agrees to transfer ownership of the franchise location and all of the franchisee’s assets (as defined in the Franchise Agreement), and to further comply with all post-termination obligations under the Franchise Agreement, BAM is willing to waive any payment owed by [redacted] to BAM. Please communicate your agreement to this offer, in writing, with BAM.”
Four weeks earlier Kuck had made the Salem franchisees the same offer on a different form, adding a waiver of all claims against BAM, with a copy to Ammon McNeff. The same letter says BAM would be “purchasing the assets of the Franchise” after an “Appraisal Notice to determine Fair Market Value” (the Salem letter). Johnson has since said “we got Salem for free” (the call).
The round trip
Both stores were BAM’s before it sold them. Wesley Chapel was a company store, held by an LLC that Matt McNeff managed, until BAM sold it to The Last Relic in October 2022 (the Florida record). BAM’s 2025 disclosure document counts one Florida company store “Sold to Franchisees” in 2022 and one “Reacquired from Franchisees” in 2024, company-owned at the end of that year, in its table of company-owned outlets (shown below).
BAM ran the Salem store itself in 2022, after its earlier franchisees there left, and sued them for $500,000 the next spring (Clackamas County No. 23CV16003). On February 2, 2023 it sold the store to the franchisees it would terminate in 2024. Its audited statements put the price at $65,000 and record “a gain of $42,619” (page 335).
The same statements record one more resale. BAM ended the Canby franchise in September 2023 with a letter from the same law firm that made any purchase of the assets “include a global release to all claims against BAM,” and on February 2, 2024 it sold BAMF Canby to an outside party for $150,000, “a gain of $56,171” (page 317; the Canby store).
The Salem and Wesley Chapel stores then went to the same two men. Josh Johnson is one of the franchise sellers BAM names in its disclosure document, and BAM’s complaint against Reckless Ben says Brandon Best “was engaged as a contracted inventory inspector for BAM” (¶ 41). BAM took the Salem store the evening of its letter, and the same complaint says the pair’s Oregon business name was registered the next day (¶ 6). Best and Johnson incorporated Wesley Chapel Baker Bricks Inc. on December 12, 2024, the date on The Last Relic’s letter (Florida P24000074967). It ran his store and was dissolved in September 2025, and Florida has since recorded an unpaid sales-tax warrant against it (the warrant).
What buyers were told
BAM’s next disclosure document, issued March 31, 2025, is the one a buyer had to be given before paying, and it covers the year of both letters and of the Messer lawsuit.
“We do not provide direct or indirect financing and do not assist in providing financing for you. We do not guarantee any notes or financial obligations.”
REFUTEDNote 8 in the same document says the Salem sale “was financed by a note receivable in the amount of $45,000.” The Wesley Chapel letter counts “approximately $80,000 in unpaid Franchise Fees stemming from the purchase of the Wesley Chapel location” (3:42). Item 10, read against the whole document. fact checkprimary source
REFUTEDBAM’s letters ended both franchises in 2024 in its own words: “BAM hereby immediately terminates” (Wesley Chapel, December 12) and “the Franchise Agreement is terminated, effective immediately” (Salem, November 14). Exhibit G of the same document lists both franchisees under “Termination” (page 287). In Florida the franchise table starts 2024 with 3 stores, opens 5, records no departure of any kind, and ends with 7, while the company-owned table books a Florida store “Reacquired from Franchisees.” Item 20, read against the whole document. fact checkprimary source
“Other than these actions, no litigation is required to be disclosed in this Item.”
CONTRADICTEDIn the year the document covers, BAM was suing its own franchisees in two states: the Messers in Utah, with the complaint Ammon McNeff verified (No. 240400022, filed January 4, 2024, dismissed August 26, 2024), and its earlier Salem franchisees in Oregon, for $500,000 (No. 23CV16003, closed September 17, 2024). The federal rule asks whether a franchisor “was a party to any material civil action involving the franchise relationship in the last fiscal year” (16 C.F.R. § 436.5(c)). Exhibit G of the same document lists the Messers’ stores under “Mutual Termination.” fact checkprimary source
Ammon McNeff swore to the document on April 17, 2025. He certified “under penalty of law” and “upon my personal knowledge” that it does “not contain any material omissions,” and the notary recorded that he “stated upon oath that said application, and all exhibits submitted herewith, are true and correct.”
In September BAM added its suit against Reckless Ben to Item 3, writing that the case does not involve the franchise relationship and calling it “material to the decision to enter into a Bricks and Minifigs franchise agreement” (the amendment).
BAM’s current disclosure document, as amended in September and certified by Ammon McNeff on September 9, still says “We do not provide direct or indirect financing” (page 31), and its franchise agreement still carries the formula from all three letters.
“If we terminate this Agreement for cause, you must pay us liquidated damages equal to the average monthly Royalty Fees paid by you during the 12 months immediately preceding the period multiplied by the remaining months in the term of this Agreement.”
INFERENCEThat BAM runs its stores in a loop, selling company stores to franchisees on credit, ending franchises with letters that trade the debt or the franchisee’s claims for the store, then reselling the store at a gain or passing it to its own people, while Items 3, 10 and 20 of its disclosure document leave each step out. It rests on BAM’s own tables, notes and letters for three stores, one reused letter file, and two successor businesses registered within a day of the letters.UNRESOLVEDHow many other franchisees received a letter built from SLC_6499958.1.
Sources. BAM Franchising, Inc. v. Madventures, Inc., Utah Fourth District No. 240400022: the verified complaint of January 4, 2024 and its verification, Exhibit K (the letter of November 24, 2023), and the case history through the order of dismissal of August 26, 2024. BAM Franchising, Inc. v. Bauman, Clackamas County Circuit Court No. 23CV16003: the complaint of April 18, 2023 and the case summary. CAMELOT331, “Former Bricks & Minifigs Owners Sent Me His TERMINATION Letter.. It’s Bad,” YouTube, June 30, 2026 (the letter of December 12, 2024). BAMF Salem 1, LLC v. BAM Franchising, Inc., Utah Business and Chancery Court No. 260200029, Exhibit D (the letter of November 14, 2024). BAM Franchising, Inc. v. Schneider, verified complaint, Utah Fourth District No. 260402353, removed to D. Utah No. 2:26-cv-00593, ¶¶ 6 and 41. BAM Franchising, Inc., Franchise Disclosure Documents as filed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, file 9006: the 2025 edition, submission 33584-202504-15, Items 3, 10 and 20, Exhibit G and the audited notes, and its certification, submission 33584-202504-02; the September 2026 amendment, submission 37254-202609-02, Item 10 and franchise agreement Section 15.B. 16 C.F.R. § 436.5(c). Florida Division of Corporations, P24000074967 and L21000003360. Matty AppleSeed, “1 hour Call with Josh Johnson,” Patreon, September 25, 2026. Everyone named here is presumed to have acted lawfully, and BAM denies wrongdoing in the litigation described on this site.